Life of Pi film fast-tracked?
If you’ve been reading Variety lately, you’re probably aware that there’s a massive strike looming in Hollywood, and that everybody there is panicking about it. It sounds like a doomsday scenario: three different unions – the Writer’s Guild of America, the Director’s Guild of America, and the Screen Actor’s Guild – may band together next June, co-ordinate walk-outs, and effectively cripple the entire movie industry.
Fearing the worst, the movie companies are now fast-tracking as many films as possible, in the hopes of completing them before the strike. The industry website Cinematical has posted a list of all the priority projects, and one that caught our eye was the 20th Century Fox adaptation of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. Last we heard, the film was to be directed by current Hollywood pariah M. Night Shyamalan, but now, it seems, the reins have been handed over to French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, of Amelie fame. According to the IMDB movie page, the film is currently in “pre-production,” which means either that it’s almost ready to begin shooting, or that Jeunet simply made a promise over drinks to read the book. We’ll keep you posted.
